Carpe diem
by NinjaGirl94
Summary: This is my first Naruto fanfiction! Please read and review it
1. Chapter 1

**White Noise**

**Chapter One**

In the early hours of a pleasant morning in the tail end of summer Naruto awoke. He lay for a moment or two spread-eagle under his thin sheets, savouring the chilled freshness of the air and staring up at the water-stained roof of his apartment. Though it was custom for the boy at this time to mutter darkly concerning what a hole his living-place was, instead he inhaled slowly through his nose, held it for a moment deep in his abdomen, and gently released. All the while he tried not to let the grin bubbling up from his chest slather itself across his face.

But, you see, despite the unabashed crappiness of his apartment or the fact that he had neglected to go shopping once in the past two weeks and was subsequently fresh out of any kind of edible food save instant potatoes, Naruto was pleased. More than pleased one might be able to venture. Naruto may actually have been _happy_.

After all, today was the day he was going out with _Hinata_.

Under his sheets Naruto indulged in a delicious wiggling of his toes energetically, unaware that the grin had defiantly leaped the cement barricade of his will and was cavorting joyfully unsubdued about his features.

Again he took a moment to appreciate the stillness of the street with eyes wide open. It felt as if this stillness that permeated the entire village was a sign. It whispered just to him: _The day is yours_.

_Carpe diem_, baby. _Carpe diem_.

Naruto finally slid from his bed and padded to the kitchen, then shoving a pile of dirty dishes to one side and seating himself himself heavily on his one completely intact dining room chair. It creaked and swayed to one side.

"Junk," he grimaced lightly. _Like everything here. I need to buy some real stuff._

But unpicky as always, the blonde haired boy decided that the bowl under his favourite fighting manga was clean 'enough' and so was the spoon stuck to the lid of the yogurt jar. Nothing openly rotted, and a little dirt only strengthens one's immune system he rationalized quietly to himself, and glanced up to the clock ticking away on the wall.

Three hours, forty-five minutes and eighteen seconds until The Moment, the defining portion of this week.

Hinata.

Naruto was so consumed in the notion he didn't even notice that he was shoveling dehydrated potatoes flakes and milk to his mouth instead of his normal cereal. More than half the bowl was down the hatch when all of a sudden a knock sounded against the door.

_Knock, knock, knock._

He looked up from his breakfast. Who could it be? His teammates? He quickly discarded that idea. Sasuke and Sakura had never, not once, dropped by the visit him. A teacher? More likely, but he hadn't done anything illegal in the past week or so. Nothing that he was aware of, at least.

His breath caught in his throat at the last possibility. _Hinata_? Three hours early, but that wasn't impossible.

Naruto experienced a brief wash of panic at the thought of how her blank, pupilless eyes would widen if he answered the door wearing nothing but his black boxer shorts and a chin dribbled with instant potato flakes.

He needed something to wear. _Now_.

"C-_Coming_!" He called a bit desperately, eyes frantically combing the room for something, anything, he could throw on. "_Be right there_!" He replied as the knock sounded again at his front door more urgently this time. He tore through his house at the speed of sound and burst open the doors of his closet, grabbing the first recognizable article of clothing that he saw and dashing towards the door just as the mysterious visitor banged one, two, three-

Naruto ripped the door open, eyes wide and panting slightly. "_I'm right here._"

A teenaged delivery boy sneered down at him over a pimple-ridden nose. "Delivery for Mr. Uzumaki-" And then the older boy's eyes flicked down to what Naruto was wearing. A pink hearts and rainbows girls' t-shirt with glittered collar and a unicorn done in electric blue on the front. They flicked up from the shirt to Naruto's red face, then back down to the shirt, then back up, then back down in some ocular tango.

Naruto leaned as casually as could be managed against the doorframe, surreptitiously folding an arm across his belly to conceal the slogan written along the lower hem: _bows and boys fill my lonely days._

Were he a full ninja, hari kiri would have been his only salvation and comfort in this dark hour. As it was, he would have to let the flaked potatoes finish the job.

"I'm he." Wishing desperately he weren't at this particular moment.

The aproned clerk thrust a brown paper sack at him. "Groceries."

Naruto blinked, but accepted the delivery and peered into the bag. Bok choy, instant ramen, milk, cereal, eggs, rice and some cupcakes. It looked a lot like his regular shopping list, and he opened his mouth to mention just that. "This-"

The delivery boy looked surly. "Mrs. Kisei, the owner, made this up for you. Said you hadn't been around in a while and wondered if you were sick." He leaned over and spit neatly onto the wood hallway floor from between his large front teeth. "I don't know why. I woulda let you starve."

Naruto's hands crinkled into the paper bag self-consciously as the fluid flow of his morning was abruptly broken into harsh shreds by the arrival of stark reality. What, just because he'd found a measure of acceptance with his team mates and teachers in school he thought the entire village would do a one-eighty? Stupid.

_Stupid_.

The delivery boy cracked his neck casually and turned to amble down the hall carelessly. He had already forgotten his cruel words.

But... Naruto didn't have to take this crap anymore. He'd passed his exams, had been on missions. He worked for the village and helped it prosper.

"You asshole!" Naruto called after his retreating back. "I risk my _life _to protect Leaf Village. You. You and your family. I would _die_ protecting Leaf Village if I was ordered to, and...and... you can't even give me some _goddamned_ groceries?" The paper bag rattled as the blonde's arms shook, unsettling shirt now forgotten.

The delivery boy stopped at the end of the hall, one hand on the dusty banister to descend to the lobby and glanced back at the small, lightly coloured teenager. "You..." he said. "You would die? For me? Then do me a favour and don't make me wait _too_ long. Looking at you makes me want to puke."

His footsteps clattered as they dove down to the main floor, and Naruto stared at the gaping maw of the staircase doorway that had swallowed him.

He swallowed, softly set his groceries on the inside of his apartment, and closed the door.

"That could have gone better." Grimaced the Lord Hokage.

Chin and Nose stared self-consciously at the ceiling in the large chamber. No one blinked.

The old man puffed thoughtfully on his pipe and stared at the door Lady Manobi had so recently huffed herself through in a royal tizzy. A few feathers still straggled down to the floor from her wretchedly bright purple hat she had thrown, and his face smarted from the hearty slap the woman had delivered. A small trail of blood trickled down his weathered face from her talon-like nails, but the Lord Hokage didn't move to wipe it away.

Finally, he spoke. "I hate pacifists. They get up too early. Early to bed, early to rise make a man healthy, wealthy...and dead."

Chin scuffed his foot hesitatingly on the polished floor as Nose coughed politely into a fist. Chin spoke, "She _is_ Leaf Village's primary source of trading income, my Lord Hokage. If we did not have her country to trade with, our revenue would be-"

"Cut by half, yes, yes. I am well aware of the delicate nature of this meeting. We must acquiesce to her demands." The man's swift, hawk-like gaze swept to other side of his chair to the silent Nose. "Find me a babysitter. Do your utmost."

The ninja bowed his head silently, gaze dark and the faintest glimmering of canine showing from between his thin lips. He was a wolf being released from his leash. Guard duty didn't suit him, the Hokage realized, it didn't suit him at all. "Yes, my Lord Hokage." There was a pause as the younger man's hands flew in a complicated jutsu.

_Foomph!_

Nose disappeared in a cloud of swirling leaves.

The ruler of Leaf Village leaned back into his chair. He wanted a few minutes of relaxation before the negotiations. "If Lady Manobi's precious little puff of a child is hurt in any way, our deal is _off. _"

Behind and to the right of him, Chin nodded gravely in agreement.

It was left unsaid that Leaf Village would suffer terrible repercussions from such a blow.

A few minutes later Nose re-appeared, shortly followed by a still sleepy-eyed and half-dressed Kakashi. "M-My lord summoned me-" Kakashi's voice was interrupted as he yawned loudly, jaw cracking. Thus refreshed he slid into his normal cocky stance. "Summoned me?" He blinked his clear eye up to the lord.

"Yes," answered the Hokage, leaning forward towards his ninja with a ferocious grin that cracked his leathery face. Kakashi felt a chill deep in his bones. This could _not_ be good for Kakashi, whatever it was. "Listen closely. I have a mission for you."

As Sasuke opened his door that morning and squinting grouchily up towards the sky, he could have _sworn_ he'd heard a scream, however faintly. In any case, it was gone in an instant, and he had more pressing matters to attend to.

Yes, today was Coupon Day.

He plopped the paper down onto his kitchen table plucked his lucky shuriken from the pile. If the flyer had had eyes, it would have trembled for the dangerous gleam in Sasuke's.

_A dozen eggs. Thirty cents off._

The sounds of shredding filled the crisp morning air. Paper carnage.

Sakura rolled over once as the alarm clock toned, then twice, and a third time deposited her on the floor with a painful _crack._

"Owwwww," she groaned sitting up and rubbing the back of her skull. That _hurt_. She disentangled her legs from her red bedsheets and stumbled towards the bathroom. Training in one hour.

Argh.

The village was beginning to come alive, like a flower opening its petals one by delicate one. Shop doors and stall flaps popped open and produce were laid out. Children scrubbed their eyes and trudged off to public school or ninja training while mothers and fathers saw them off at the door. Newspaper carriers finished rounds and returned home as vehicles began trundling the streets with thick, heavy grumbling motors. The feet of thousands raised hot dust to stick in the throat and eyes. Voices chattered back and forth, creating a thick soup of noise as city birds fluttered from rooftop to rooftop overhead in the shimmering blueness of the sky and the occasional stray cat crouched, slit-eyed, on the occasional front stoop.

The Village awoke from the small death of night's rest. Leaf Village lived vibrantly all over again like a phoenix arising in a loop repeating as endlessly as the sun's own cycle.

Naruto resisted the urge to flip them all the bird.

"C'mon, Naruto-kun," urged Sakura to her sullen teammate as she had for the past twenty minutes. "What's wrong? What's bothering you?"

Naruto hunched his shoulders in response.

The girl sidled closer. "Are you going out with _Hinata_ today?" She cajoled. "You were both going to, uhm, _pick flowers_ or something." Yeah, right. Naruto picking flowers? As if. It was probably code for... something else. Inner Sakura cackled.

_I am, aren't I? _Though Naruto. Flower picking, when he was with Hinata, wasn't as deadly boring as he thought it would be. It made Hinata-chan happy and Naruto found he _liked_ making the shy girl laugh. It was an incredibly peaceful pause in his otherwise insane life. But he did wonder why Sakura would get that strange look on her face, as if she suspected something. Ah, well. Who understood girls?

Naruto exhaled heavily, and opened his mouth to speak. "I just had a real bad start to my day-Oh, hi, Uchiwa."

Sasuke sported a razor thin slice along his cheekbone under one eye. It had scabbed over, but no mistake could have been made. Sakura gasped.

"Sasuke-kun! You're hurt! What happened?" She reached out one finger to touch it softly.

Sasuke batted her hand away irritably and averted his gaze down and away. "Training accident with my shuriken." He muttered, embarrassed by her unabashed concern.

Naruto rolled his eyes from atop his perch to one side. "Perfect ninja. Training at six fucking a.m. No rest for The Uchi-nator."

"Shut it, Uzumaki." Snapped back Sasuke, wishing to end the discussion as soon as possible. It was humiliating, anyway, for a trained ninja to get a paper cut. He ducked his head to avoid being bonked by an acorn thrown by Naruto then stooped down to grab one to return the favour.

Naruto beamed and lobbed two more, one at each team mate. They easily avoided the tiny missiles and had cocked back their hands to throw one each when their wrists were roughly grabbed from behind, ending the battle prematurely.

Sakura gasped and began to attempt to twist from the assailant's grasp as Sasuke turned to face the threat.

The boy found himself staring directly into the single eye of their instructor. "Kakashi-sensei!" he exclaimed, immediately dropping the weapon he'd grabbed. It tumbled from his fingers and clanged mutely on the dusty earth. "Iruka-sensei!" Sakura exclaimed as she saw the other familiar face almost at the same moment and let her own short knife slide as well.

Sasuke and Sakura backed up hastily, both alarmed by the stilted, irritated set to their instructors' form.

"Is something the matter, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura ventured, and was taken off guard as the older ninja slammed his right fist into his left palm with a small sound of annoyance.

"I've been '_granted'_," grated Kakashi. "A very important mission to Leaf Village. So, no lesson today. Go home."

Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke plinked in unison.

"_What_?" Erupted Naruto, launching himself in a blonde haired rocket-propelled leap of indignation at his instructor.

"You _can't_-" Protested Sakura almost at the same time.

"Hn." joined Sasuke, arms folded tightly across his chest.

"Hey!" Kakashi said, raising his hands in front of his chest. He used one to heft the flying Naruto away from his attacking flight path to Kakashi's chest, up and over his shoulder and crashing into the bushes behind all four.

"Hey, hey!" The grey haired ninja continued. "_I_ can't control what missions the Lord Hokage gives me any more than you can." He paused, scritching at his masked nose with one finger in silence. Naruto scrambled out of the bushes and loped up to where his other two team mates stood. The boy dropped down into a crouch facing Kakashi and with a slight grin for Iruka.

"And I had plans today, too." The shinobu sighed. "Iruka-sensei and I _were_ going to be quite...'occupied' all this afternoon. Weren't we, Iruka-_sensei_?"

Iruka coughed, suddenly developing an irrational fascination with his sandals.

Sakura stared.

Sasuke stood stony faced and silent.

Wind whooshed.

Naruto blinked. "What?"

"_Anyway_," resumed Kakashi, clapping his hands in front of his chest. "I had mentioned to the Lord Hokage that _you_ three might want to do this vital and dangerous assignment, but he doubted you could complete it. It would take great self-restraint to endure the hardships it... entails."

Sasuke, just as Iruka and Kakashi had predicted, bristled. "I can do it,"

_Like flicking a switch,_ thought Kakashi. _He has a long way to go. _"Oh?" he asked, raising his eyebrow.

Sakura's back stiffened. "I think you could trust us to do anything needed, sensei."

"Let me at it!" Naruto licked blood from the back of his hand in a feral way. The bushes had scraped him up, only adding to his foul mood. "I'll _kick _their ass." Now with this mission in the afternoon instead of training in the morning, his plans with Hinata were shot. Just perfect.

"Oh, no," said Iruka sweatdropping at the sudden blood-lust that radiated from the blonde boy. "No, you don't understand at all. But let me explain."

As all order must inevitably fall victim to the decay of chaos, day must follow night. The morning had burned away like a soft mist under the harsh glare of the solitary eye embedded within the sky and turned the lush, verdant Leaf Village into a mirage of shimmering heat waves and phantom puddles quivering on the dry, dusty road ahead. The light from the sun seeped into every crevice. Warmth was inescapable in the cupped palm of the earth. It reflected from every surface. Radiated from every pore. Plants grew limp and tempers short.

Naruto thought that his brain would be baked.

"I still don't get it," he murmured to no one on particular, then reaching up to wipe his brow. Sasuke blew a breath out, presumably annoyed by Naruto's questioning. Sakura tossed her head to one side and thumped it back against the rock wall she sat with back against. Her two male team mates stood above her.

"For the millionth time, he's a _pacifist. _That means he does-won't fight. He's the son of Leaf Village's most important trading partners and _we're_ to keep him safe and entertained." She squinted pale blue eyes up at her team mate. He stood directly in front of the unbearably bright dot of the sun and was thus cast in shadow. She squinted again, wondering if he comprehended the sheer gravity of the scenario. "So if we screw up..."

"We're toast." Finished the dark haired boy, seemingly unaffected by heat except to grow more grouchy. Actually, it was just nerves. Sakura reacted to tension by becoming rules-obsessed, Naruto by adopting a fuck-it-all attitude, and Sasuke by seizing up. Right now his knuckles were white under his arms and the cords on his neck could have cut diamonds.

To the casual observer, though, he appeared bored.

Strangling self-control like this was a difficult talent for anyone and _especially_ for someone of Sasuke's age. After all, in this crucial part of his life his adolescent brain was literally re-wiring itself. Emotional centres arrive to their adult counterparts first, thus enabling feelings to be almost overwhelming sensations as the neurons overcompensate for a lack of Myelin sheaths by hammering away at the receivers with a brutality never again seen. It is only much later that the reasonable, forefront of the brain arrives at the station to marry up and realign the brain into an adult form, performing at nearly twice the speed of a child's.

Thus, in someone Sasuke's age the brain is in the most emotional, least-reasonable and unstable stage of his entire existence. Most teenagers find it difficult to stop themselves from slamming back the Ben and Jerry's, let alone restrain stampeding male teen emotions like Sasuke.

In fact, beneath his calm and serene exterior, it was a tumult.

The boy twitched slightly, and grunted. "They're coming."

And indeed, from the main street came three wavering figures. Two massive forms flanking a small, slender body. Sakura scrambled to her feet and hastily dusted her hands on her red tunic. "Now remember what Kakashi and Iruka-sensei said!" The girl hissed shifting her weight anxiously from side to side.

"We know," said Sasuke, squinting ahead to catch a glimpse of their charge. "He can do what he wants. He can shit in our sandals if that amuses him, and if we screw up, Kakashi'll break our legs."

"No pressure or anything," Naruto muttered and straightened up to greet the boy as he approached. "Hi, there!" He grinned broadly.

The boy, encapsulated on either side as he was by two hulking bodyguards in neckties and suits, seemed dwarfed by comparison as they blotted out the sun. Naruto was forced to look up and up and _up_ to finally catch a glimpse of the towering, scowling, deep-set faces. The men had arms twice the circumference of Naruto's legs and the fabric of the suits stretched at the seams. They did not look happy to see him. He blinked in the sudden shadow they cast, eyes dilating to adjust.

Naruto shrugged flippantly and pointedly turned his attention back to the small boy between them. He had no reason to even be polite to the monkey-suits. "Hi. I'm Naruto. That's Sakura-chan and that creepy lookin' kid is Sasuke-kun. He only eats _bad_ babies, so he's okay."

"_What?" _Sasuke squawked, unnatural calm ruffled.

Naruto grinned again at the boy. He was skinny with knobby knees and limp brown hair that was cut in a ridiculous bowl cut. He wore dirt-brown shorts a full two sizes too big for him and his feet were strapped by means of thick straps to his sandals. He had a baleful, defensive look in his spiteful eyes and teeth with large spaces between each and every one. He did not smile.

"My mother," he said, voice nasal and glasslike. "Says ninja's are dirty, dirty, violent killers and all ought to be locked up. My mother says that the world doesn't need any more blood and you're just too stupid and primitive to realise that."

Naruto forced a smile down to his charge, facial muscles straining. Hadn't he been a rude little brat when he'd been younger? Wasn't he _still_ a rude little brat? He could understand this kid. They could reach common ground. He could do it.

"My name's Rusty. You're all ugly looking. Why do you have cat whiskers on your face? Why doesn't he smile? Shouldn't girls be inside sewing or something? I'm tired. This is boring. I want something to drink. God, this village _sucks_."

Naruto twitched. Sakura twitched. Sasuke looked more bored than ever. Today was going to be a lo-ong day.

_Where is Iruka and Kakashi-sensei anyway?_

What had he gotten himself into?

_"Are you 'ready'?"_

_"Just give me a few minutes. I won't go easy on you, Iruka-sensei. Here, I'll take it out."_

_"Oh, wow...It's so...so..."_

_"Big? Yes, I like to think so. Its a family thing."_

_"But how do you fit it into such a small place? Even for an anbu, to keep it put away... May I touch it? Yours is beautiful..."_

_"Touch it? You're going to be **playing **with it all afternoon, Iruka-sensei."_

_"I suppose you're right...wait, **all** afternoon? You can go that long? I should have expected that from someone like you."_

_"Even longer, if I have the right...inspiration."_

_"I believe that."_

_"Shall we begin?"_

_"I thought you'd never ask, Kakashi-sensei."_

_"Be careful what you wish for..."_


	2. Chapter 2

**White Noise**

**Chapter Two**

Flashback_

Naruto plucked petal after petal from his daisy with blunt fingers and let them drop down to the grass. The pathetic scraps of plant appeared achingly white in the bright sunshine. He turned his gaze from them shortly. It always hurt his eyes to look at them too long.

Behind him he could hear Hinata wandering through the knee-long grass. The blades whispered against her clothing as the girl approached, though the sound was masked by the gentle rustling of a summer breeze.

It was a beautiful day to break rules and sneak outside of the fort.

The sensation in and of itself was a delicious drink that left him feeling exhilarant and satisfied. The boy felt more than he saw Hinata seat herself beside him and her hands smoothing her jacket as she lowered herself. The girl settled her warmth against his shoulder, letting her exhaled breath tickle against his ear. He didn't turn to look. Instead, Naruto focused his gaze on the white, fluffy clouds that played a game of tag in the sky. They were detached and unencumbered by the conflict of the world below. They were free in the truest sense of the word.

What would it feel like to exist as a cloud?

Unused to such thoughts, Naruto was unsure of how to handle the ideas and resulting emotions. Ignore them? Consider them further? Speak them aloud?

Weren't philosophical thoughts like this supposed to be good, positive things?

Then why did his ribcage feel like it was made from ice despite the warm sun spilt on his shoulders and the mass of Hinata on his chest? An odd sensation crawled up through his belly and numbed his lips. It was a dangerous emotion, he recognized. It was something that had tormented him throughout his painful childhood. It had him cry himself to sleep alone some nights and throw rocks with a vengeance the next day. A hated emotion, both bittersweet and terrible at once.

"Longing."

Naruto turned his head to spy Hinata from the corner of his blue eyes. Her eyes remained fixed upon the white fluffy cloud and her lips were parted ever so slightly.

"I wish..." Her voice was muted, as if she spoke to herself. "Don't you wish you were a cloud sometimes?"

Naruto hesitated as he tried to formulate an answer. None came, so instead he held his silence. It felt almost too dangerous to speak. Everything might come gushing out. His childhood, his desire for someone who cared, the pain, the anger, everything. She didn't need to hear all that, Naruto knew. _She doesn't need to know._

Hinata's fingers curled into the earth beside his leg and he found himself fascinated. Hinata, with skin so pale and clean, digging dirt under her nails was a confusing paradox. She didn't belong outside, but nonetheless, here they were.

She spoke again, summarizing. "I always do. If I had been born a cloud, Neji would have been happy. His father would be alive. I wouldn't have hurt all those people just...by existing."

It was her, not him, that urged the other to slip from a crack in the Village walls and make their way here to this solitary, empty meadow of rolling dips. It looked like the swells of the ocean caught in time. The two ninja lay at the crested wave together in the cool summer afternoon and heard the roaring of the grassy sea in their ears.

"Sometimes," said Naruto moments later. The clouds passed in front of the sun and set a filter over the natural illumination. The meadow changed, morphed, became a brand new world right in front of their eyes and the scent of rain swarmed insistently. "I wonder... what life would be like if I weren't with Leaf Village. No Kyuubi. Just being stupid with lots of other kids. Having fun. Being..." His resolve twisted like a hung shirt on the line in the breeze. "Being _happy_." It was all he wanted, really. Wasn't it?

Hinata exhaled lightly and peeled away from Naruto's form to rise to her feet. The wind pushed the grass to bow around her calves and she smiled. "Would you really have been happy?"

Naruto blinked hard. Was that what he'd asked? "I-is that what I'm supposed to want? Isn't that what everybody wants? Happiness?"

Hinata pushed one of her ear-tails to join the mass of shiny black hair help tightly by her blue Leaf Village-insignia band. It did no good; the increasing breeze made strands flutter and tease at the corner of her mouth and over the rise of her was so beautiful, he realised. Almost other-worldly. She leaned down to the boy beside her, expression solemn. "What is happiness, anyway, Naruto? Happiness is spun just as fine as clouds. Happiness... Th-that's a fool's game. Any happiness I make can never last. Happiness isn't for us-for ninja."

It felt almost as if the air had been punched out of his lungs. He could only stare up at the soft gray specter as she voiced fears he never brought to conscious mind. They were there, kept behind doors with no locks and walls with no end.

_For people like us._

Killers. Assassins. Bodyguards. Soldiers.

Could Hinata be right? Could that be all there was to the life they lead? It couldn't be true. It couldn't be possible. He didn't _want_ it to be possible. Looking up at her, Naruto spied the faint glimmerings of silver at the corner of her cloudy, pupil-less eyes that threatened warily to spill over.

The tears decided him.

_No._

He wouldn't believe in God if it were true that Hinata's mere existence precluded any chance she might have had for happiness and peace. The thought terrified him, sickened him that the world could be that sadistic. It really wasn't him that reached up to take her wrist and tug Hinata down to rest on his shoulder, then, it really wasn't. It was some automaton that slipped into his skin and rested his chin on top of her head, and it wasn't her that curled adolescent fingers around his forearms to pull them nearer.

"Hinata," he said. "If-if you ever have happiness...I'll protect it for you. I will. I will be there, I promise." Like no one had been there for him. Quite absently, he reached down and plucked a daisy's bobbing head from the waving grass by their legs and brought it up to Hinata's face. Slowly, he began to pluck petals from it once more.

Wasn't there some kind of rhyme that went with this action? A nursery rhyme?

_Flowers for you_

_flowers for me_

_flowers for all_

_flowers be free_

_tell your own fortune_

_with the daisy charm_

_and find..._

That was it. He couldn't remember any more.

And above the two curled forms, storm clouds were whipped to a frenzy, then erased from existence by a wind.

_Maybe, _thought Naruto blankly. Hinata's fingers were warm against his flesh, solid and real. _Maybe __**this**__ is happy._

He almost felt that way. Against him, Hinata murred quietly then neither spoke no more.

Naruto forcibly controlled his memories to replay that afternoon over and over again as Rusty dragged his feet in the dust ahead of him in a shambling, slouching canter that kicked up mountains of dust that stuck in his throat and coated his sweaty skin. Sasuke's head hung by his ear, eyes closed and mumbling every so often as the four made their way to the infirmary.

This, apparently, was Rusty's idea of _fun_. Any suggestions the genins had made were promptly and neatly shot down by that piercing yet delicate voice and the knobby knees. "_No!"_ he would shout. "_Mother doesn't allow me brutish war games!"_ after Sasuke had grudgingly volunteered to play hide-and-go-seek and Sakura suggested they play chess.

The pink haired girl had recoiled back a step and stared incredulously at the indignant, huffing form in front of her. "What? Why not chess? What's wrong with chess? What could you _possibly_ have against chess?" Rusty complained long and bitterly about the lack of entertainment in Leaf Village.

Rusty had propped himself up, puffed out his chest and impossibly looked down on Sakura. She was a full head taller than him. "It's a game of _war_, stupid. My mother says that even war games show a desire for violence. And I'm better than that. My mother says that makes me _spiritually advanced._" He folded his arms smugly as Sakura stood there for a moment, mouth opening then clicking shut at the preening little brat below her.

Naruto could hear her teeth grind from across the courtyard where he was lounging under a tree. It was Sakura's turn for Rusty-Sitting and she had taken him to the school, hoping he would be interested in a tour. He was not. He was interested in making every waking moment of this weekend into a living, breathing, heat-wave Hell. "Hey, Sasuke-kun," he interjected lazily, directing his voice to the dark haired genin who perched in the tree above him like some animated gargoyle. "Aren't you gonna help your lady-love out?"

The only response was a rustling of foliage and the crack of a branch inexplicably falling towards the blonde's head. Luckily, the Leaf Village forehead protector took most of the damage and Naruto could hop up beside his team mate amid the leafy branches. "Careful, Sasuke," Naruto smiled, Cheshire-style. "The branches just _aren't safe._" And the blonde pushed with all his might on the unresponsive boy's back.

_Thud._

"Sasuke-kun!" Shrieked Sakura and all but materialized at the boy's side. His dark eyes were winced shut and he rolled gently from one side onto his other, cradling his wrist. His lips were curled back in a grimace of pain. "Sasuke-kun!" Cried Sakura again. "Are you all right? Did you break anything? Let me check!"

"Uchiwa!" Naruto plopped down out of the tree and crouched over his fallen comrade. His own brow was twisted in concern and a slight trace of guilt. He removed his hands from his knees and placed them on Sasuke's shoulders, forcing them to the earth. Patient thus restrained, Sakura took over in the diagnosis.

"Strained," she said quietly, rubbing the joint with the ball of her thumb, expression then turning thoughtful as she thought back to the standard medical training texts. "I think it's been broken, maybe. It's already starting to swell, see? We should take him to the infirmary." Sasuke moaned lightly in pain between the two as they conferred quietly, deciding who would be best to carry their partner. Behind them, Rusty stared incredulously. He stood alone, unsure, and shifted his weight from one foot to the other as the two fussed and murmured over Sasuke.

Inconceivable. They were here to watch over _him_. Over _Rusty._ The ninja were supposed to be fussing and scrabbling over _him,_ not That Creepy Looking One! And even though he was Spiritually Advanced and far better than those Stupid Ninja, Rusty felt very small and alone, and intensely aware of how much he did _not_ have anyone to fuss and comfort him when he was hurt. Not truly, anyway. Servants didn't count.

"Stop it!" cried Rusty and stamped his foot in the dust of the courtyard. Immediately the mumbling stopped and two heads swiveled in unison to regard the brown haired child incredulously. He swallowed, though at that moment he felt very, very wrong and very, very sick in his stomach. But he could _not_ allow this to continue any longer! Rusty licked his dry lips and, since it always worked so well with his mother, flicked his bangs ineffectually from his eyes and placed his hands on his hips haughtily. "_I'll_ tell you when we can take _him_ to the infirmary."

Sakura's forearms trembled with the effort of not drawing her shuriken and skinning Rusty alive. Her hands clenched into the senseless Sasuke's blue shirt like claws, and Naruto's pupils dilated as his breath hissed from between his teeth. It was he that spoke first.

"As you wish, Rusty..._sama._"

Never before had Rusty ever hated the respectful appellation. But the pain of this rejection only made him dig convulsively back into his memories, pulling any scraps he could forward that he was _right._ Why? Because he was rich, and he had never fought, and he was _better_ than this stupid, _stupid_ bodyguard in front of him who probably needed help reading a cereal box.

Naruto stared evenly across the courtyard at the younger boy who folded his arms across his chest and childishly stamped his right foot to the earth. Naruto could feel Sasuke twitch under his hands and groan softly.

Finally, Rusty spoke. "_Now_ we can go." The little twit, Naruto noticed, had the audacity to look pleased at his minor dictatorship. It would have made Naruto indescribably happy to knock that little tin-pot empire right out from under Rusty Manobi's hypocritical feet.

But, he realised as Sasuke moaned softly again, it would have to wait.

"I'll carry him," the boy said softly and Sakura nodded in response.

So, this was how their miniature caravan took shape that afternoon, with the unconscious Uchiwa Sasuke riding piggy-back on Naruto's shoulders, Sakura keeping an eye out for their precious charge, and Rusty mutely leading the way. Sakura muttered softly, expressing a wish to simply roof-hop their way to the infirmary instead of plodding there on foot. Rusty's nostrils flared. Sakura shut her mouth, and ground her teeth furiously.

"I could carry you," She offered at length.

"No," answered Rusty blithely, completely ignoring the common sense of her suggestion. "_I_ want to lead."

And so an eternity later the four arrived at the academy's infirmary high on the eighth level. When Sakura rapped her knuckles on the wooden door it flew open immediately, and a voluminous woman in a gray apron gazed for a moment above the children's collective head-level. She blinked, then looked down to where the group waited.

"Oh, my!" She exclaimed, as she took in the pale Saskue. "Come in, come in! You carry him, you tell me what happened," Medic Nei said as she ushered Naruto and Sakura into the interior of the sick bay.

"What about-" exclaimed Rusty, straining to rise to his tiptoes, ever the valiant hero for leading 'his' party safely home.

Medic Nei flicked a fleshy hand in his direction. "We need no more bodies in the room. You sit there, young mister, and you _stay_ put." Rusty's thin-lipped mouth snapped shut like a codfish's on a hook and his skinny bottom thumped down on the log bench to one side. The door closed with a slam and the breeze lifted his thick brown bangs from his pre-pubescent face.

Naruto glanced over his shoulder towards the door. "Uh, Sakura-chan?" The girl didn't answer. She was too occupied with her number one crush laying prone on the table in front of them both. She clasped Sasuke's free hand within hers and gazed fitfully at his face for any reaction. Typically, there was none. _An un-reaction even_, thought Naruto sourly. _If that were actually possible. But leave it up to Super Dork himself._

"Uh, Sakura-chan?" He pestered again. Medic Nei bustled around the room, swabbing everything in sight and preparing to reset the broken bone in Sasuke's hand. The woman whistled a cheerful tune and glanced out the window often.

"What?" Asked Sakura distractedly.

"Should we really...be leaving Rusty like that?" True, the little shit was a pain, but they did have a job to do. Naruto shifted his weight from one foot to the next and tried to formulate the doubts and concerns swirling around in him to words and proper sentences.

Sakura blinked once, eyes still fixed on Sasuke's face. It was a moment later she replied, and then as if from a distance. "He'll be okay. He knows not to stray. Right now we need to worry about Sasuke-kun."

Naruto bit his lip thoughtfully. His concerns over Rusty still hadn't been placated, but he wasn't sure just how to broach the subject again with Sakura. She was always so single minded about Sasuke that any attempt to pry her away from the prone body with any tool short of a crowbar was sure to end in failure. Naruto glanced out the window. He _really should_ mention his worry to Sakura. They really shouldn't just leave Rusty out there by himself. Little moron would mess with anything.

"_Sasuke-_kun_."_ interjected the large medic, suddenly appearing between them. The two genin both looked up in surprise. The woman's demeanour had changed drastically. The smile had vanished from her fleshy face and her eyes glittered like hard chips of stone. "I'd be worrying more about yourselves at this moment, dears." And with that, she clapped a hand across the two genins' faces. Her hand was little more than a flash and neither had time to react. As Naruto and Sakura inhaled to cry out at almost the same moment, each felt a strange tickling sensation in the back of their throat, and smelled the faint scent of... peaches.

The grinning visage of the medic followed them to the floor, even as the world blurred, fuzzed and slipped mysteriously through their fingers.

Sakura regained consciously slowly and grudgingly, as if the waking world were the shore and she were tiredly slogging in its general direction. The scent of peaches swirled around her and her eyes refused to focus. But above her she could hear voices.

"...hide behind the Fourth."

Beside her, Naruto shifted.

"No, I got them. Yeah. No. ...Knocked out. The last is unconscious."

Sakura blinked blearily at the ceiling and pondered twitching her fingers. The effort to do so seemed far away and unimportant. But Naruto rustled again as he half rolled over. His two blue eyes stared blankly at the wall, one pupil huge, the other a mere pin-prick. He groaned softly, slightly, and then fell silent.

But that one groan was enough for the false-Medic Nei. During the time they had been drugged, she had changed her shape as well as her demeanour. The false-Medic Nei was now slim, athletic and feline with dreadlock braids that reached down to her waist and a anbu uniform. Her mask dangled from her neck in the stylized red swirls of, predictably, a tiger. She was over to their side of the room quick as a dart and stared down at the reviving genin as he groaned.

_Oh, be quiet, Naruto!_ pleaded Sakura in her mind. _Just...shhh! And maybe we can get out of here!_ The shore was drawing closer, she could tell, it would only be a matter of time until she could move again. The scent of peaches was fading rapidly.

But false-Medic Nei was taking no chances. "Well-ee, well-ee, well-ee. I spy two little lambie-kins, all spriteful and strong. We can't have that, now can we? We need Leaf Village humiliated and destroyed." Her hand dangled down near her right thigh for a moment and re-emerged into view with a wicked dagger. It glimmered sickly in the light and seemed out of place in the soft brown of the infirmary.

Sakura felt a thrill race through her, a bolt of liquid lightening as adrenaline flooded her brain. _Come on!_ She urged herself. _Move! Move! I can't die here, laying on the floor! __Come on get up!_

"Two little lambie-kins," sang the false-Medic and leaned over Sakura, her long shadow chilling the younger girl's flesh. "Two soon to be... none!" False-Medic Nei's voice was a chill whisper.

Sakura screamed inside her own mind. _No! Not like this!_

The blade of the dagger winked as Naruto flopped uselessly from one side to the other like a grounded guppy. Sakura could see he was struggling with all his might to move, but it was too little and far too late. They were going to die. A whimper escaped rose from her throat as the woman raised the dagger to strike home her first cut. Sakura could see the muscles and tendons in the woman's joints, flexing at the apex of her deadly arc.

She paused there, as if contemplating her actions.

And paused.

And hung there for a full breath. Sakura blinked (under her own free will, she was pleased to note) in confusion.

Then the woman gave a choking gasp. the tension in her trained muscles melted and flooded out of her as first her knees gave way, then her entire legs, and finally she collapsed to the stone floor. "Geff...Keff..." she rasped heavily as blood trickled from her mouth to pool on the floor. Sakura could see what exactly had killed the woman-a large shuriken in the nape of her neck.

Her eyes travelled up the shuriken to the wrapped legs and shorts standing above it.

Sasuke swayed above the gray-clothed form. He looked sick to his stomach, and his hand clutched to his chest oddly. The joint was a rotten purple and his flesh was pasty and white. "We... have a problem." he gasped.

"Just-just _one_?" burbled Naruto from the floor.

Sasuke leaned heavily and clumsily against the open door. "Rusty... is gone."


End file.
